Out of curiosity, I started asking the people around me a simple question – What’s the worst word?

As expected, a lot of people voted “cunt” to the top of the list as it remains the one word you still won’t use in front of your mam. Some more interesting words came out when the people I posed the question to got into conversations about it. They asked, “what do you mean by the worst?” 

Everyone had different words for different reasons. People got annoyed by the sound of certain words or having to hear them in work all the time. I started recording them in a small notebook.

I never really thought about my own answer to the question until it hit me in the face one day while talking to a human representation of a south Dublin stereotype. She was like, totally caked in foundation and had like bleached blonde hair. She really liked that I was into art and stuff like because she omg totally loves fashion and she’s like always looking for inspiration about what to wear in magazines and online and stuff, you know that kinda way like?

I wanted to shoot her. But there we have it! Like. The worst word in my opinion is “like”. A word that was once used to craft similes and make poetic comparisons has now become close to meaningless through its overuse and our general acceptance of under achieving articulation in conversation.

Use your words people. Use your words.

I wanted to reflect something about the disposable nature of this word so I produced a large quantity of digitally embroidered likes and mounted each one inside a take-away coffee cup lid. The colour scheme was a nod towards the girl who had highlighted my most despised word, Barbie princess pink yellow and blue pastels with touches of embroidery and beads for good measure. The final result is suitably nauseating.